Bi-Courtney Aviation Services Limited, operators of the Murtala Muhammed Airport terminal Two (MMA2) has promised to deepen its commitment to safety during its recent awareness campaign, themed ‘Safety: It Takes All of Us.’
This is also as the company said it will continue to develop and practice robust safety culture across the entire aviation activities that recognize the importance and value of effective aviation safety management.
This it said will be achieved by a clearly defined roles and responsibilities for all stakeholders aimed towards the development and delivery of safe practice and procedures.
Speaking during the safety awareness programme held at MMA2 in Lagos, Charles Aroguma, BASL’s safety manager, said the event is part of Bi-Courtney’s commitment to ensuring safety in all its activities and it takes everyone coming and working together to make safety a reality on the apron.
“We sincerely hope that with this campaign we would be able to address challenges which are inherent in our day-to-day activities.
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“These include the violation of apron safety rules and regulations, oil spillage during fuelling, working without personal protective equipment, the use of unserviceable equipment, and activities of ground handling personnel, promoting quality reporting culture and prompt identification and intervention on potential safety-related issues in and around the apron.
“We are confident that this exercise will create the required awareness and improve our attitude to safety on the Apron in particular and the airport terminal in general,” Aroguma said.
He explained that safety is very critical and important as far as the industry is concerned and it is very important the company comes up with programmes like these to sensitise people and bring them back to what they should know about working in this critical environment.
The safety manager said they want to make sure that the terminal is safe, so that those who are flying are also safe.
He said the staff are trained on safety on a daily basis.
“They know the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) and they understand that they are working in a volatile environment. They need to be very careful how they work because their lives also matters and also understand that there are passengers on the aircraft when the aircraft is airborne. We tell them the basic things they need to know about safety on the apron,” he said.
Speaking on how the company maximises space to park aircraft, Aroguma said Bi-Courtney is always in talks with the airlines so as to programme their operations so they don’t have too many aircraft parked at the same time.
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Also speaking at the event, Mohammed Odunowo, director of Aerodrome and AirSpace standards, Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority, (NCAA) said the programme helps the authority improve safety and security on airside because they have observed that MMA2 needs to make certain adjustments.
“For MMA2 to willingly conduct this programme, I think it is commendable and that is why my HOD and I came to physically attend. This is to also encourage them that safety is everybody’s business whether spillage or FODs, it is everybody’s business.
He commended MMA2 for implementing the Safety Management System (SMS) NCAA recommended adding that the system by itself is a self-check that audits itself.
“The SMS is fairly new but everything that is happening now is okay. If you want to know if your SMS is working, you will see a lot of issues popping up. But the importance of data storage is very critical because SMS does not exist without data,” he explained.
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